Can't Wait for 2018!

This beauty was the highlight of our 2017 and living here is what we look forward to the most in 2018!

 

   

 

Day 130 of 266

Finally, our family windows had been installed! The rest of the scaffolding had been removed and the rubbish had been cleared.

As I told my SS, we did not pay for lock-up until all the windows, doors and eaves had been fixed and completed. 

From the outside, the house looks like we can move in already. I can't wait t see them finish the ground floor render and put our feature render colour Peace Pipe in the porch awning.  

 
 

 

Day 128 of 266

The render colour to the first floor has been applied and the scaffolding were being removed today.
Our home theatre cables were still in place and a new set of copper wire were installed again.

Our SS left  a message on my mobile yesterday to advise that he is going on holiday from 22 December until 17 January. He said that our plaster will be done between then and then our stairs, kitchen cabinet and painting will all be done towards the end of January.

 

    
 

 

Day 120 of 266

Week 17! Our cinema lounge window is on. The broken window in the living area has been replaced. The sliding doors had been put back, the one with a dent has been fixed while the one that fell off is still the same. The upper part of our downpipes were being installed when I dropped by. 

The family room windows were still missing.

On the down side, our copper wire has been stolen again :-( Luckily, our home theatre HDMI and cables were not touched. I have been warned by my SS and BC that I need to be accompanied by my SS if I want to go inside the house so my dilemma is how do I tell my SS that the copper wires were stolen again.

PD accounts sent me an email today to advise that all my issues about lock-up invoice has been addressed except the family window which they can't install now because of the scaffolding.  She also advised that our plaster will be installed on Monday and she's asking if I am happy to pay the lock-up invoice. 

I'll email my SS tomorrow that I will pay the invoice without the family windows, but he has to place a cover on them to protect the plaster from any rain.

I just love how beautiful the house looks on this lovely summer day! 

Our newly installed cinema/lounge window. Our tree was also replaced as the first one did not survive the heat.

Our neighbour at the back side has started to put up his fence.

Our walls batts are waiting for plaster.

Our temporary main door stays closed now

The plaster in waiting and the new living area window.

Day 115 of 266

The render which was started the other day was finished already and the broken window in our master bedroom had been replaced, hopefully it's the correct double glazed window and all the rest were also replaced. We can't go inside the house and check anymore as we had been warned several times already that we can only go inside when we are with our SS.

The temporary main entry doors which were usually open, were closed  when we drove by today so maybe they were repaired also.

The other windows and sliding doors were still uninstalled.

The plant in our front nature strip did not survive the heat and a new one was planted today. 

 

Day 113 of 266

Week 16! Our family room and cinema lounge windows are still missing and the master bedroom and living room windows are still broken. Looks like our eaves to the first floor are finished and the wall batts had been installed despite the missing and broken windows and doors.  

Last Monday, we received the invoice for lock-up stage and we told our BC, SS and PD's account staff that we are not paying for lock-up stage until all our windows and doors are installed.  

PD sent me a customer survey right after this and the rating I gave reflected how unhappy I was about the window business, unfinished eaves, temporary main entry door that don't close properly, damaged sliding doors, frame issues that my SS won't address as he said they were non-structural but were not discussed with us prior, our SS wanting to install plaster and wall batts without waiting for the house to be water tight and us getting lock-up invoice even though we are far from being locked-up.

Today, there was a crew on site applying our render. I just learned from the tradies that after they install Hebel, they wait a few days to apply render and then the render colour after. They assured me that rain doesn't damage the freshly applied render.

Despite all our building issues, I must admit that our house is turning into a beauty and we are so happy that we chose to build with Hebel. 

 

 

 

Day 102 of 266

Someone's busy doing our first floor eaves in this hot, hot spring day!

Day 101 of 266

Catch-up day with our SS! We turned up too early and about 5 tradies were already working on our Hebel. 

Before the Meeting 

When we stepped out of the house after an hour or so of meeting, the tradies were almost finished with our Hebel!

After the Meeting

The meeting with our SS basically covered the updates on Darbecca report, what has been fixed, will be fixed before plaster, will be fixed later and won't be fixed at all.  We had a long discussion about the items that he won't fix at all and in the end, we gave in after being reassured that they are non structural and asking for engineering review will cause further delay. 

We advised him that we want the skirting put on and painted as we are using Quickstep scotia. Now, there are 2 water taps at the front of our house that is directly in our porch and he said we can ask that to be moved after hand-over, but it will cost $600 to move it to a very limited distance so I don't think it's worth it to move the taps for now. We reminded him about the feature paint in the cinema/lounge that he promised us. We gave him the new HDMI which he installed right after our meeting.  He will let us know when our electrician can come in to out the power outlet for the projector. 

We got our Tree!

While waiting for our SS, we noticed that a hole was being dug by Woodlea landscapers in our nature strip to plant our tree and then they suddenly covered the hole and moved on to the block next to us. I had a chat with them and they told me that they can't put a tree on the hole as there are NBN cables in there. 

I asked them if they can put our tree farther from the NBN cables and not just leave our front without a tree. After a phone call to his supervisor, they went back to our block and dug up a new hole for us! 

Hooray! This definitely made my day and the early trip to Woodlea all worth it. I just love being surrounded by trees, back home I had avocado, jackfruit, sugar apple, rambutan and the flowering champaca tree in our yard! 

I'm also super excited that the nature strip in front of the wetlands also got planted with trees today.    

Day 97 of 266

Finally, we're all wrapped up! 
 

   

 

 

Our BC sent me an email to update that they will install the rest of the Hebel early next week and the plaster the week after. My SS also sent me an text message that we will have a catch up sometime next week. 

Day 92 of 266

Week 13 now! Scaffolding to the first floor has been installed again so the Hebel to the first floor and the remaining parts of the ground floor should be finished in the next couple of days. That should make our house look more like a real house and make us feel that we are nearer to completion.

Our SS sent me the engineering report that our slab repair has been reviewed and approved.